Beacon Medical Group Reviews 

Really disappointed with Beacon Medical Group. Overall I feel they just do not deliver a quality service for their patients. We have had a recent telephone call to discuss my mother’s medications, but they telephoned my brother and he suggested I needed to be spoken to, as I manage most of my mum’s medical stuff. My mum is in a home. She is 97 in two weeks time and has both Dementia and Altzeimers. Tonight at 7.30 pm I had a phone call to book “an appointment” to discuss her medication. The first date they could offer me was 14th August. They refused to give a time. They refused even to say am or pm. So how can this possibly be called “ an appointment”. So am I supposed to stay in the house, sit by my phone ALL DAY until it is convenient for the doctor to telephone? I think this is totally unreasonable. I understand that doctors have an important job to do. I understand that they are under pressure. However, other people have important jobs and have important things to do in their lives and are also sometimes under pressure. This is not the first time I have had concerns about the way the Beacon Medical Group works. I could write a long list of niggles and complaints. I used to live in Ivybridge and was a patient at the Ivybridge surgery. However since being part of the much larger “Beacon Group” I feel its service has really gone downhill. So sad. My mum is going to have to move soon because her home is closing. If I knew she would be staying in Ivybridge I would start looking into to moving her to a different medical practice. One very unhappy “customer”. Please note this is not a complaint about the individual doctors, who I am sure do the best they can. Rather one about the way in which the Beacon group seems to operate. You just do not feel “ valued” or even “ understood” when you speak to them about your concerns.

Awful experience yet again, have heard nothing but bad and experianced nothing but bad service from this group. Have an ill child and dealt with paramedic through 111 in early hours. Was advised that he needs to be seen in person by a Doctor in the morning. Paramedic tried to book through his/their system, but was not allowed/blocked, stated had this problem before with Beacon. Phoned first thing, as soon as opened and already 10th in q, unable to give an appointment in person, only a telephone appointment, which had already been advised by a paramedic through official channels (guessing receptionist knows better than the 111 paramedic), and ending up going to the A & E as advised by the Paramedic if GP could not see in the morning. Well been assessed by a Doctor at A and E, even had them slate Beacon as not the first time. Am now just leaving hospital with treatment and am still awaiting a call. What a backwards step Beacon provide in health care, where is the choice in ivybridge. Can understand why the whole system is stated to be in a mess (although A&E brilliant service and care), when you have this type of GP provision. Shame on those in government that have allowed this to happen. If going to privatise through the back door then surely we shouldn't have a monopoly in Ivybridge by Beacon and at the very least have competition, shame this has been allowed to happen.

Cancelling after 2 months waiting a day before the procedure.. by text after the office is shut for 4 days…

The practice is shocking..... Practice management is terrible, with zero regard for the fact that you are a customer of their Service. Told things that do not happen. Get pushed to web pages that are difficult to navigate, and pushed to automated forms, that then give you a timeslot that are not fulfilled.

Phoned them after receiving text to contact. 25 minutes of waiting listening to abysmal music then 3 rings, then phone disconnected! Complained via letter, to which I got a call to say they are investigating and would contact me soon. No reply after a month. Complained to PALS, no result after 3 weeks so far. My wife has been ill and after bad phone consultation from GP(s) and long wait times she has ended up in hospital receiving proper advice and treatment. Avoid this surgery at all costs.

Gone downhill again.

Phoned to say baby sick can't make appointment at 11:10am to be told to call up after 10am and tell the nurse admin team. What kind of system is this? And then they wonder why they get DNAs well I tried to tell you! Send them a message or a heads up!? It's common sense. I know you have this message ability in system one! Absolutely ridiculous service. Probably not going to waste my effort time and money to call again. I did my part.

This group or practise needs to be investigated whilst the initial phone call seems professional the after care is extremely poor, medication i have had has been stopped with no explanation and trying to make an appointment on the phone or via e service is a complete joke, i wonder how the elderly cope if they arnt it savvy or have family to do it for them.

I give only one star because I cannot give zero stars. My experience of The Beacon Health Group has been appalling. I have formed the impression that patients exist for the good of the Beacon Health Group and not vice-versa. I have found the people there to be inconsiderate and condescending and seeming to think that just because they work in healthcare they know more than anyone else. This is all probably more to do with the administration rather than the actual medical people. I booked a flu jab last year and was advised that it was via a drop in day. When I arrived the queue was immense and they had obviously not considered when most people might arrive or how they would manage the numbers.

I recently received a no-reply text asking me for my opinion on the quality of service I received during that particular visit. How you reply to a no-reply text I have no idea. I copied the text and pasted into an email address and sent my 'very poor' review only to receive a response back saying that the email address was not monitored. This is how seriously they take customer feedback. Yet if you look on any of the NHS reviews they are mostly glowing, draw your own conclusions from that. If it were logistically possible to go elsewhere I would.

I have found Beacon Medical Group Plympton Devon not to be trusted after one of there doctors fraudulently sign a legal statement with false allegations and would recommend you avoid this practice as being untrustworthy

The on-line consultation is appalling, takes forever to fill out and the symptoms / Condition you have is often not listed so you are led down a path that is not relevant.

I have been signed to the Beacon Health Group for nearly three years.
The service I have received has been awful. They have been trying to sort out my hyper tension but have just prescribed one drug after another. On one visit I sat waiting for 50 minutes for my appointment, on asking at the reception why I had not been seen? The receptionist said she would find out. I was then sent upstairs to another reception. After a further 40 minutes I went back down to the reception to find out what on earth was going on. The receptionist then said that the Doctor had seen me? I said I'm sorry I have seen know one. Eventually the Doctor admitted that she had seen a patient and thought it was me! I said do you see a lot of one legged men with cancer then? You could not make it up!

This group is a sad reflection of the service we used to have. I am registered at the Chaddlewood surgery and it closes for one day a week. You never know which day. So if you have only gone with a request for a repeat prescription you still need to call in again.
This week on Wednesday I tried to book an appointment expecting to wait the usual three to four weeks only to be told there were none available until Tuesday 15th when a block of two weeks worth of appointments would become available. The receptionist blithely informed me this meant no patient would need to wait longer than two weeks. Patently untrue as I cannot even ask for one until next week and then have to wait perhaps another two weeks. What will happen if all the appointments are gone by the time I go to the surgery. I am retired and able to go to the surgery at their opening time but people at work who have to telephone will not be so lucky as it is virtually impossible to get through on the phone.
This surgery is so bad it would not surprise me if some patients were to die under their neglectful care

Tried to get an appointment today (26 Sep 19) to see my GP, only to be told that there are no available appointments between now & 11 Oct 19. Asked for the next available appointment but was informed that at present they do not know the availability of GP clinics after 11 Oct 19 - hopelessly inefficient & unprofessional! Just goes to show how incompetent this shower is, if they don't know what they are doing more than 2 weeks ahead. The Care Quality Commission needs to undertake urgent surprise inspections of all Beacon Medical Group GP surgeries, as currently patients are being denied access to care when they need it. Moreover, all Beacon Medical Group GP surgeries should be placed under special measures, as currently they are totally devoid any professionalism, organisational ability & patient care.